Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.

The Belmore restaurant that used to be on Park Avenue South at 28th Street was "New York's Most Fabulous Self-Service Restaurant." It was famous with taxi drivers and was featured in the movie Taxi Driver (1976).

19 August 1981, New York Times, "About New York: An Oasis for Cabdrivers Is on the Way Out" by Anna Quindlen, pg. B4:
But they kept the sign in the window that said, "New York's most fabulous self-service restaurant."

5 Sept. 1986, New York Times, pg. A20:Philip Siegel Is Dead at 85;Owner of Belmore Cafeteria

Philip Siegel, who owned the Belmore Cafeteria in Manhattan for more than 50 years, died Monday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in Manhattan. He was 85 years old and lived in Manhattan.

Mr. Siegel bought the cafeteria, on Park Avenue South at 28th Street, in 1929. Over the years, he expanded the dining area from 100 to 500 seats and, in the late 1970's, he installed fashionable track lighting and put potted plants in the front windows.

He never dropped the Belmore's slogan -- "New York's most fabulous restaurant" -- and he never disposed of the turnstile that discharged a little ticket to each customer who entered.

Until Mr. Siegel closed the Belmore and sold the building for a condominium complex in 1981, it was serving about 5,000 people a day on weekdays. It was particularly popular with cab-drivers, students and elderly people on fixed incomes. Scenes for the movie "Taxi Driver" were filmed there.